By George Willis, New York Post
Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, confirmed he has no plans to put together a boxing card on his network to compete with the May 7 welterweight bout between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley, distributed by rival Showtime.
"No, we're not going to do that," Greenburg told the Post recently.
The two premium cable networks have a history of staging fights on the same night. Whether it is a coincidence or intentional counter programming is up for debate.
In fact, both Showtime and HBO will televise boxing on March 12, when Showtime broadcasts Miguel Cotto's junior middleweight fight with Ricardo Mayorga from Las Vegas, while HBO counters with Sergio Martinez defending his linear middleweight title against Sergiy Dzinziruk from Foxwoods. But HBO won't have boxing on May 7, clearing the night for Showtime to distribute the biggest fight of the year thus far.
It's rare for HBO to be on the outside looking in of such a big fight. But the promoters of Pacquiao-Mosley, Top Rank Inc., took their business to Showtime, hoping to capitalize on its ties with CBS. Three episodes of a four-part documentary about the fight will be aired on CBS, with the debut being on Final Four weekend. The prospect of reaching 115 million homes is an opportunity Top Rank couldn't resist.
"I didn't make a decision based on anything else other than numbers," Top Rank president Todd duBoef said. "I looked at the opportunities I'd get on one platform as opposed to the other platform. It's was a business decision."
Nevertheless, losing a Pacquiao fight was like a punch to the gut for HBO, considering Pacquiao's bout with Antonio Margarito last November at Cowboys Stadium generated 1.1 million buys and $64 million in revenue. If this move to Showtime and CBS can produce substantially more, it could cut into HBO's dominance of boxing.
"It's a one fight deal," Greenburg said. "We're hopeful we can get back in the Pacquiao business. It was business decision on their part. So I have to hold them to their word that we're going to get an opportunity to show why we're still the place to go in terms of generating pay-per-view buys."
Greenburg said the decision to not offer another boxing card on May 7 is proof fights on both networks on the same night is more coincidence than calculated.
"The HBO schedule is so crowded with premier movies and a lot of other programming on Saturday night that we're only given a couple of dates for perspective fights," Greenburg said. "I don't love when the two networks collide, but we always manage to work it out. For the most part we stay out of each other's way. We try to."
HBO will have the spotlight to itself tonight when it televises a terrific matchup in the bantamweight division. Fernando Montiel of Mexico will put his WBO and WBC titles on the line against Filipino Nonito Donaire from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Montiel (44-2-2, 34 KOs) has been undefeated since 2006, while Donaire (25-1, 17 KOs) has won eight of his last 10 fights by knockout. Their bout will follow a highly anticipated rematch between welterweights Mike Jones (23-0, 18 KOs) of Philadelphia and Jesus Soto-Karass (24-5-3, 16 KOs) of Mexico. The two waged a fierce battle last November at Cowboys Stadium with Jones winning a decision by one point.
Greenburg dispelled any notion he is unhappy with the performance of his boxing staff and considering changes.
"There's no contemplation of any changes at HBO," he said. "We're proud of our franchise and proud of our heritage. We'll continue to work hard to give the very best. I'm proud of my staff. They work very hard. It's a tough business, but we're up to the challenge on a day to day basis."
george.willis@nypost.com
Source: nypost.com
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